Does this E-Bay bidding look fishy?

Not to me

It looks like you've got a couple of bidders there who like to fish for the winning price instead of just bidding what they are willing to pay, and you've got one guy (currently at $400) who got the high bid on it, then bid higher to find the reserve.

I see folks bid like that regularly - they don't know what they want to pay for the item, so they keep upping their bid until they they are in the top spot, or they lose their nerve. I don't generally bid that way, but lots of folks do.
 
It looks like you've got a couple of bidders there who like to fish for the winning price instead of just bidding what they are willing to pay, and you've got one guy (currently at $400) who got the high bid on it, then bid higher to find the reserve.

I see folks bid like that regularly - they don't know what they want to pay for the item, so they keep upping their bid until they they are in the top spot, or they lose their nerve. I don't generally bid that way, but lots of folks do.

Yeah, perhaps your right. It just seemed weird to me that a brand new account bidder would be leading at $300.00 and raise it to $400.00, but perhaps the reserve wasn't met yet at $300.00.
 
Yeah, perhaps your right. It just seemed weird to me that a brand new account bidder would be leading at $300.00 and raise it to $400.00, but perhaps the reserve wasn't met yet at $300.00.

Yes, that pretty much HAS to be what happened. Since no one else bid in between, you wouldn't be able to see a higher number unless some threshold (outbid someone or hit the reserve) was reached. You can't up your 'winning' bid just by bidding again, you'd need a second bidder.

I suppose a shill bidder isn't out of the question, but in my mind it's just as likely to be someone who's not used ebay before, but was told to go there to find a machine.

My defense against shill bidding is to not get caught up in the bidding. I bid early, I bid what I'm willing to pay, and I leave it alone. My theory is that people using shill bidders tend to think an early bidder can be prodded into bidding again and thus over-paying. I don't bite, so I don't have reason to think I've been bitten by shills.

This also works great against bid snipers. I've bid exactly what I am willing to pay. If you want to pay more, whether it's moments after I bid or moments before auction close, you have fun with that. Trying to out-do me by bidding 10 cents over my current bid in the last seconds won't really matter much one way or the other.

I should also say, if it is a shill, it's a stupid one. Shill bidding to get the bid up over the reserve isn't doing the seller any favors. Now he's out even more fees if it doesn't sell, AND since he's jumped quite a bit over the previous bidders, it's not necessarily going to get more bids (it might, but it might not).
 
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I never understood what makes it look fishy? Is because of a new bidder or is there something else. I need a lesson so I can go back to shill bidding on my stuff. Just kidding
 
damn it went for 400$ with torn art and no t moulding

got a guy local selling a dk ,popey,and mario bros for 250 each all in pretty much perfect shape time to go buy them and relist on feepay
 
My defense against shill bidding is to not get caught up in the bidding. I bid early, I bid what I'm willing to pay, and I leave it alone. My theory is that people using shill bidders tend to think an early bidder can be prodded into bidding again and thus over-paying. I don't bite, so I don't have reason to think I've been bitten by shills.

This also works great against bid snipers. I've bid exactly what I am willing to pay. If you want to pay more, whether it's moments after I bid or moments before auction close, you have fun with that. Trying to out-do me by bidding 10 cents over my current bid in the last seconds won't really matter much one way or the other.

I don't agree. By placing a bid you have exposed your interest in the item. It only invites a shill to bid you up to your maximum (over is fine, it's when you're shilled up to 'find' your max). If you don't bid til the last second, then there is no ability to be shilled up (unless of course it's an automated shill but that's much less likely).

Load a snipe for the maximum you're willing to pay. Therefore you don't expose your interest in the item, don't invite a shill, and don't invite a "real" bidding war.

I'll admit I've bid on stuff only because someone else has--meaning someone felt that it had value at that price, so therefore I must at least consider it. And likewise, I've been mroe apt to bid on stuff and walked away losing saying "well, at least I made someone else pay more for it". If you hadn't bid early, I would not have been as likely to bid (unless it was somethinig I *REALLY* wanted of course).

The only risk you run is the seller cancels or changes the auction before you snipe. Cancelling, well you probably didn't want to deal with them anyway, they may not have honored the bid. Changing the terms/inclusions/price before your snipe goes through..that's what you need to watch for and not load your snipe until the last 12 hours when the seller can no longer edit the auction.
 
damn it went for 400$ with torn art and no t moulding

got a guy local selling a dk ,popey,and mario bros for 250 each all in pretty much perfect shape time to go buy them and relist on feepay

That high a bid nearly 2 days before the end of the auction was what I found curious. I was hoping to maybe pick it up for a couple hundred as it was a bit on the rough side. Chances are the newbie bidder will never pay for it and it'll be relisted in a week or 2 anyway.
 
I know us KLOVers are cheap, but are we really complaining about a working DK that sold for $400. Yeah, it needs sideart and t-molding, but for under $500 you can have a really nice looking DK. If this was local to me (and I didn't already have one), I would not have hesitated going $400 on this one.

Bidding looks legit to me. I don't see any issues with it.
 
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